Israel’s Secret Settlement Expansion Deal Leaves Talks in Doubt

The Israel-Palestinian peace talks haven’t even really gotten under way beyond a single preliminary meeting, but are already chock full of back room deals, with President Obama making secret promises to both sides and internal Israeli politics threatening to derail the whole thing already.

Getting the hawkish Jewish Home party on board after they threatened to quit the government over peace talks apparently wasn’t just a matter of putting a referendum system in place to ensure a deal was all but impossible, and the Israeli media is now reporting Netanyahu secretly promised massive expansions to West Bank settlements in return for their acquiescence.

Under the not-so-secret deal, Israel will announce 1,000 new settlement homes in the next few days, and Netanyahu has signed off on another 4,000 or so homes that won’t be announced for a few more months to give the appearance of a one-shot deal.

That’s not the way the peace process was supposed to work, and the reports were that the deal for a “limited” settlement freeze allowed Israel to make a one time 1,000 home expansion in the existing settlement blocs during the talks, presumably the impending announcement. That Netanyahu has a deal with Jewish Home that directly contravenes a separate deal with the PA could throw the whole process into doubt, though with two weeks remaining before the next meeting there is plenty of time for more behind-the-scenes deals to be made.

"Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and the other inferior there will be war" the only solution to this problem is for the Palestinians to take up arms against their apartheid aggressor.

The settlements were planned anyway. This is just an attempt to apply some sort of justification (in a Zionist sense) before the world for a land and resource grab. It all boils down to 'the Palestinians made us do it'

It is already clear to anyone willing to see that there will be one country from the Jordan River to the sea.

The only question is what will happen to the Palestinians. It is past time to face that as the real issue. There is loose talk about killing them (Bennet) and about expelling them (many). The practice so far has been to make life so impossible that Israelis can't believe they'll put up with it much longer, and will just go away.

We need to see these talks in light of the reality, not the lies of politicians who want us to see anything but the reality.

Oh what a shock. Israel is building more home on arab lands. i doubt anyone really thought it was going to produce anything. I suspect this means nothing left but to bomb Iran for ruining the peace deal.